Full steam ahead for suburban skyscrapers

Within the confines of the District of Columbia, the question of whether to allow tall buildings is a subject of much debate. But in the burgeoning urban centers of Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland, there is no question: more tall buildings are coming.

Alexandria's proposed Hoffman Towers. Image by DCS Architects.

For many decades Rosslyn has been home to the tallest skyscrapers in the Washington region. The taller of its Twin Towers is 381 feet tall. But soon that building will rank no better than 3rd tallest in Rosslyn alone, with the 384 foot tall 1812 North Moore and the 387 foot tall Central Place in construction or soon to begin.

Even with those new buildings, Rosslyn could soon lose its crown. Buildings as tall as 396 feet could soon be built around the Eisenhower Metro station in Alexandria. They would eclipse Alexandria's current tallest building, the 338 foot tall Mark Center Hilton.

Fairfax County approved a 330 foot building in Reston yesterday that will become the tallest building in the Reston Town Center cluster.

Reston's next tallest building. Image from RTC Partnership.

Meanwhile, the Arlington County Board is scheduled to vote this coming weekend to either approve or deny a 297 foot building in Crystal City that would tower well above all its neighbors. Tall buildings have long been constrained there by restrictions due to Reagan National Airport, but those rules recently changed, so taller buildings are now allowed.

These aren't particularly tall buildings by the standards of large central cities. Baltimore and Virginia Beach both have buildings over 500 feet tall, and the world's current record holder is a whopping 2,717 feet. But still, the trend in the DC area is unmistakable; buildings are getting taller, and will most likely continue to do so.

Dan Malouff is a professional transportation planner for Arlington County, but his blog posts represent only his own personal views. He has a degree in Urban Planning from the University of Colorado, and lives car-free in Washington. He runs BeyondDC and contributes to the Washington Post .

way behind schedule= No money. I wonder if the sequestering threat is really holding things up for new starts. I bet investors are waiting to see what happens, and are mitigating a potential contraction in commercial office space demand.

At the conceptual stage, there are a number of 400-foot buildings proposed for Tysons. So long as they are right at the rail stations, they would be allowed. Tall buildings in these locations make sense as they concentrate density within the immediate TOD areas.
Unless and until the economy improves significantly, we are likely to see too many of these buildings proposed for final approval.

So the DC area will evolve into multiple smaller dense clusters of high-rise buildings in Rosslyn, Crystal City, Tysons Corner, Alexandria, Silver Spring?, other sites centered on Metro stations scattered around the DC perimeter while the downtown DC area remains at 130'?

The region has obviously been trending that way for years with the tall buildings going up in Rosslyn across the river, but carrying the trend to its conclusion will make DC a rather unique city or metropolitan region in the US. More distributed with multiple dense clusters around a core than any other US city that I can think of. Interesting result of building a Metro system in combination with height restrictions for the core city.

The twin towers in Rosslyn are 381 feet as measured from sea level. 1812 N. Moore, which is under construction, and Central Place will be about 80 feet taller, as the heights given for those are from the average site elevation. That is rather significant by our local standards and will make Rossyln stand out more than it already does, but still nothing to write home about.

New skyscrapers are nice and great density boosters, but they're not always practical, and this is the case with a few of those mentioned above.

In Virginia the new Reston tower will stick out like a sore thumb being head and shoulders above anything nearby (including the prominent ex-Accenture building). What's worse is that the 20-years overdue Metro station is already a good distance from the actual town center, but will be almost a mile from the new tower. Reston planners could use a lesson in urban planning from Bethesda, Ballston, Friendship Heights, Rosslyn, Silver Spring, etc.

The worst of all these buildings economically speaking is the Crystal City tower. Besides the skyline-wrecking issues, there's no way Crystal City can absorb all of that class A space. Thanks to the feds moving, Crystal City is a virtual ghost town and has the most depressed urban real estate market in the area.

The Virginia Beach tower is almost hilarious since it clearly doesn't belong there. There must be all of 3 buildings in "downtown" Virginia Beach taller than 4 or 5 storeys. It's amazing that something that they would build something like this in a "city" with a pop. density of only 1,713/sq mi (low even by Southern standards). Should have been built in Norfolk at half the height.

The towers that make the most sense would be the two Rosslyn projects and North Bethesda II, the latter of which is especially impressive because of its iconic design.

Tom, Do you mean EUR in Rome? That was Mussolini's La Defense but with a massive dose of politics. I think it's fair to question why the Parisians and Romans want these glass towers to the outside of their cores.

The slew of 400' tall buildings for Tysons is not accurate. They are all sub 400 currently in every rezoning. I wish they were taller and more densely located, but unfortunately most will be between 150-250' with only about 1-350'+ building per major rezoning. The article is correct in citing the 365' tall Cityline tower at Scotts Run as the highest currently proposed.

My hope is that after transportation funding agreement is complete, that Macerich or Lerner will come back to the table to talk about an ambitious rezoning for their unique properties and the possibility of a 400+ tower, but in the current environment of NIMBYism coming out of McLean, without the transpo funding set any additional RZs are going to be hard pressed.

Cap One's proposed rezoning application includes a 268' and a 396' building. Neither are scheduled to be built soon. Subject to Cap One paying the currently effective Road Fund rate, rather than an older one effective at the last rezoning, the board of directors of the McLean Citizens Association voted, on September 12, unanimously to support Cap One's rezoning application.

The application consists of five phases, with only one phase proposed for immediate construction. Phase 1 consists of more office space for Cap One's staff and a residential building for out-of-town Cap One staff working temporarily in McLean). Cap One hopes to move its workers from two other leased sites in Tysons to its new campus in 2014.

Cap One has permission to build three 200 K sq ft buildings now and is arguing it should be able to pay Road Fund fees based on that approval. However, Cap One's existing zoning will not permit construction of Phase 1, so neither county staff nor the MCA agrees with Cap One's position.

I think there is some confusion on Cap One's application for heights; the build you are referring to (BLDG 12). It is listed as 421' now, but it is also only listed as a 28 floor above grade building. Thats 15' per floor which to me doesn't pass the logic test, and I can't tell if it is including 3 floors of below ground.

Capital One continues to argue it should be permitted to pay the lower Tysons Road Fund amount for 600,000 sq ft that was in effect when the County approved the construction of three buildings. Many, including me, disagree since Cap One is not proposing to build those buildings anymore and is seeking rezoning to build its new plan.

I dont disagree with you on that TMT. It would set a new precedence as all that matters in the world of rezonings is built and not built. Previously approved conceptuals are overwritten by new rezonings. I am sure that will be negotiated out by the PC before going to the BoS (we will find out Thursday when PC meets with Cap One)

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